I don’t ride a bike, why should I support measures to boost cycling?

A new cycle superhighway in London will carry 1,000 cyclists an hour - the equivalent of four Tube trainsChris Stowers/Getty Images

If you are not a regular cyclist, you may ask why you should support proposals to boost investment in safe cycle routes.

More than three quarters of a million people commute to work by bicycle in Britain every day, but you may not be one of them. So why should you care?

Building safer cycle routes would not only benefit those who cycle. It would also encourage hundreds of thousands more people to use their bikes to make short journeys instead of going by car or by train or bus. This would have benefits for motorists, pedestrians, parents, businesses and taxpayers.

It would lead to less congested streets, less overcrowding on public transport, fewer deaths on the road, less NHS money wasted on obesity, a…